A month after filing the indictment against Milorad Dodik, the president of Republika Srpska (RS), and Milos Lukic, the acting director of the Official Gazette of the RS, the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIH) has not disclosed its factual description, which is just one in a series of unanswered questions to journalists this year, despite Milanko Kajganic’s earlier announcements about increasing transparency.
The Court of BiH confirmed the indictment against the President of the RS and the acting director of the Official Gazette of the RS, but the public still does not know anything about the charges in the indictment. Even when the indictment was filed on August 11th, the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH did not publish more details, except that they were charged with non-implementation of the High Representative’s decisions.
Information about other cases related to Dodik, such as the “Icon” case, is also unknown to the public, and a large number of questions about other suspects and accused persons remain unanswered.
The Prosecutor’s Office of BiH did not respond to numerous journalists’ inquiries
On several occasions, the Prosecution of BiH did not provide information about the prosecutor’s decision to file a report against Dario Kordic, who was convicted before the Court in The Hague for participating in the attack by the Croatian Defense Council (HVO) on Ahmici on April 16th, 1993, when more than 100 civilians were killed, and after a video appeared in public in which he said that he would do it all over again. On that day, 116 civilians were killed in Ahmici. Journalists were also left without answers to questions about the crimes in the village of Brisevo, a case for revealing a protected witness, and questions about the departure of BiH citizens to Ukraine.
“And the few answers I get are meager and incomplete, insufficient for journalistic work. They overwhelm us with announcements that are of no use to most of us, except perhaps for daily newsrooms and portals,” believes Zinaida Djelilovic, a journalist.
Judicial institutions are increasingly closed off to the media
Her experience is that judicial institutions are increasingly closed off to the media. She says that since November 2022, the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH has answered three of the eight questions she sent them. She adds that she did not receive answers to the questions about the cases that the media in BiH previously wrote about, whether the cases were formed, that is, whether prosecutorial decisions were made.
The BiH Prosecutor’s Office believes that they have a proactive approach to cooperation with the media, both in placing media announcements and in responding to journalistic inquiries.
“You need to understand that you cannot get an answer to a question for a specific case if the acting prosecutor is on vacation, officially absent, at a hearing or the like, or if he decides that there is no need to comment on an issue, several times in a row, regarding the same procedural actions, ” said Boris Grubesic, spokesman for the BiH Prosecutor’s Office, Detektor reports.
E.Dz.
